Memories From The Set: Maggie Lawson

In TVLine's "Memories From the Set" feature, TV vet Maggie Lawson — now the star of Fox's Outmatched — shares anecdotes and BTS details from her roles on such shows as Psych, Smallville, Lethal Weapon, Two and a Half Men and Justified.

HALLMARK MOVIES

While filming this holiday season's Christmas in Evergreen: Tidings of Joy, the latest of several Hallmark movies she has done, "I basically had pneumonia the entire time, which nobody knows," Lawson sheepishly reveals. "We covered it very well!" Asked to account for Hallmark Christmas movies' perfectly spherical snowman parts (as seen in photo), Lawson says, "I don't know what they put in them, but they don't really melt. But they are icy. Like, you do not want to get hit with one of those things."

CRUMBS

In this one-and-done ABC sitcom, Fred Savage played a writer who came out when he was living/working in Los Angeles, but hadn't yet come out to anyone back home — parents Jane Curtin and William Devane included. Lawson played Savage's best friend. "It was a very cute little show. Short-lived, but cute."

ER

In a 1999 episode of the acclaimed medical drama, Lawson played a young woman who suffers a spinal injury in a car crash, while her brother (future NCIS: LA agent Eric Christian Olsen) sustained widespread burns. Despite this on-screen relation, Lawson says she and ECO wound up dating "for many years" afterward — though for a moment, crew members thought her heart belonged to a different co-star. 

"I was hooked up to all the machines when Anthony Edwards walks by and says hello, and moves on. Then someone comes up to me and is like, 'Do you have a thing for Anthony Edwards? Because your pulse went through the roof when he walked up.' My pulse ox was on!"

FELICITY

In the back half of the Season 1 two-parter in which Todd Mulcahy got hit by a bus, Lawson played the fiancee who showed up at the hospital, making for an awkward encounter with his crush, Felicity. "I had this scene where I break down talking to her, and when I went in for the audition, [series creator] J.J. Abrams was like, 'I'm just going to talk to you for a second,' and he walked me through the entire story and I started bawling. He then was like, 'Now do the scene.' And when we were on set, he was like, 'Do you want me to walk you through it again?' I said, 'Do you mind?' And he walked me through the whole thing. That's what a director is supposed to do, but it is rare."

JUSTIFIED

Lawson touts her Season 3 appearance as "one of my most fun guest stars ever," in part because "I got to use my Kentucky accent." Playing husband-and-wife organ harvesters, she and Clayne Crawford "were bad, bad, bad people," she recalls. "Tim Olyphant shows up and figures the whole game out, but we knock him out and get him into a bathtub. Then when I go to check on him, he pulls his gun from his holster and shoots me, right in the boob! Then I say to him, in my Southern accent, 'I can't believe you shot me!'"

PARTY OF FIVE

During what would be the Fox drama's farewell season, Lawson recurred as Alexa, "a Mean Girl best friend" to Lacey Chabert's Claudia. "They had a very complicated relationship, and Lacey was very sweet to me," says Lawson, whose debut came amid a date rape storyline. "Like, something happens to Claudia, and the whole episode explored what happens to somebody in that kind of a situation. So yeah, it was heavy."

SMALLVILLE

"Chrissy Parker was awful. She was so evil!" says Lawson of her Season 2 turn as a Freak of the Week who sucked the youth out of unsuspecting lads. "I would kiss boys, and then they would age and die." In reality, Chrissy was a "very old lady," meaning that once the spell that provided her powers was broken, Lawson had to get wrinkle up. "That was my first experience with prosthetics, and I am claustrophobic...," she reports. "I had to be in a head cast for a very long time!"

TWO AND A HALF MEN

Toward the end of the CBS hitcom's run, Lawson recurred as Ms. McMartin, "the social worker who was there to help Alan (Jon Cryer) and Walden (Ashton Kutcher) adopt a baby because they were pretending to be a gay couple. And once I found out they weren't a gay couple, I not only continued to help them with the adoption process, even though they lied, I end up dating both of them!"

SANTA CLARITA DIET

As Christa to Joel McHale's Chris on Netflix's suburban zombie dramedy, "I'm an asshole, and I never get to play an asshole!" Lawson effuses. "I got to say the worst words I've ever said in my life. Victor Fresco did some of the best writing anybody's ever done for me, so I will love him forever for that. And Joel is one of my best buds, and we had already played love interests on The Great Indoors. I hope we get to play husband and wife many more times." (Oh, hey, there's Olyphant again....)

PSYCH

"I mean, where do I start with the memories...? Now I am going to cry," Lawson responded when cued to reflect on the USA Network dramedy that has thus far run for eight seasons and two movies. "I came on after the pilot — Anne Dudek did the pilot, and I think she got on Mad Men after, so she's fine," Lawson laughs. "But yeah, I had heard of James Roday, I had heard he was very funny. And then of course Dule Hill, I was like, 'Holy s–t.' But when I went from seeing what was on the page to seeing what Roday and Dule were doing off the page, I was like, 'Ohhh, this is magic. We're on something magical right now.'"

UNHAPPILY EVER AFTER

This WB sitcom co-starring oneday Entourage member Kevin Connolly and a talking plush rabbit "was the first job I ever had, ever, and I had no idea what I was doing," Lawson remembers with a laugh. "The sweetest memory I have from that is I immediately met somebody named Joel Michaely, who's producing movies now. I remember being so scared and green, and at one point, he said, 'So, are you going to stay here for pilot season?' And I leaned over and said, 'What's a pilot?' I think I ended up doing four episodes, but that show is the reason I even came to L.A. — and from that, a bunch of other stuff happened."

LETHAL WEAPON

Since the Fox buddy dramedy had just (and quite publicly) replaced Clayne Crawford with Seann William Scott, whose ex she played, "the set was tense, obviously, but my experience was really good," Lawson shares. "Seann William Scott is so good, and I loved how they wrote the character. As a showrunner, Matt Miller is a really, really loving, wonderful guy."

Small World Fact No. 1: Now working opposite Jason Biggs on Outmatched, Lawson acknowledges, "I know — I'm making my way through the American Pie cast."

Small World Fact No. 2: As previously noted, Lawson called Clayne Crawford husband on Justified. "This whole business is so weird...," she nods.

BACK IN THE GAME

In "one of my favorite pilots I ever read," Lawson played a single mom who defies the town's manly men to coach her son's Little League team. "I'm not really sure what happened, why people didn't totally connect with the premise...," she laments. "But when you have John Requa and Glenn Ficarra directing your pilot, it's going to be magic. They just got it on every level." As for having the James Caan for a dad, "I mean, even from our first reading together, it felt very father/daughter," she says, warmly. "I was really sad about that one, because it was so good."

ANGEL FROM HELL

In this 2016 CBS comedy, a dermatologist learns (or at least is told) she has a guardian angel, in the form of Glee scene stealer Jane Lynch. "My favorite memory is from the day I read with Jane for our chemistry test. I walked into the ladies' restroom and she was singing "God I'm a Dancer" from A Chorus Line, in a toilet stall — and I started singing with her. We broke the ice before we even went into the audition."

PSYCH 2: LASSIE COME HOME

Lawson believes "everyone will be very happy" with the sequel to Psych: The Movie, which will land on the new Peacock streaming service as early as this spring. As suggested by the title, the follow-up more meaningfully involves Timothy Omundson, who was sidelined by a stroke the first go-round. "I'm so happy for everyone to see Tim," she says. "It was a very emotional experience for all of us, every single day at work."

As for how things are going for Shawn and Juliet, Lawson smiles, "I love that our characters at this point are settled into married life. It was 'Will they, won't they?' and then it was 'Why aren't they married?' and now they're married and just chilling. So many people have asked me about Sean and Juliet, and I'm like, 'You're going to see we're just a normal married couple!'"

PSYCH (continued)

"My very first day on set, Tim [Omundson] and I happened to have the first scene, first take, everything. I had just shaken his hand and we were about to go in and play, and I remember he looked at me and said, 'Maggie, are you going to act the s–t out of it?' I said, 'Oh, yeah. You bet. Are you going to act the s–t out of it?' He was like, 'Yeah!' And we were off and running. He still texts me to this day to say, 'Are you going to act the s–t out of it?' And I do the same for him."

MODEL BEHAVIOR

In this Wonderful World of Disney riff on The Prince and the Pauper, Lawson did double duty as Alex, a wannabe fashion designer, and Janine, the teen model she happens to look like and trades place with. "That was my first lead role and I played two characters, so it was super challenging but one of my most favorite experiences," Lawson recalls. Someone named Justin Timberlake — who played a male model Alex winds up dating — "and I had a ball. I think I was his first on screen kiss," Lawson says. "We were so young and *NSYNC was just about to pop.. We stayed friends for years and to this day when we see each other we gush about that experience and cheer each other on. I also have to say: Kathie Lee Gifford (who played Alex's mom) was an angel to me and my family. I love her, and we also have stayed in touch."